Yulee medical technician in intensive care after Iraq ambush

YULEE (AP) -- An army medical technician from northeastern Florida was in the intensive care unit of a Kuwait City hospital after he was injured in an ambush, his parents said.

Spc. James Byrd, 24, told his parents that he was traveling in convoy in Iraq last week, when he went to inspect a burning truck.

His next memory was being in the hospital after an apparent explosion.

Byrd's parents, Bruce and Shirley Byrd, were watching television hoping to get a glimpse of their son when the phone rang.

"When he said he was at the hospital, I thought he meant he was at work," Bruce Byrd said about his son, who is a medical technician with the 101st Airborne Division.

"The first thing I said to him was 'do you still have two arms and two legs," Byrd said. "He laughed and said 'yes.' I was so thankful that he was in such a critical situation and in such proximity and got no more hurt than he did."

Byrd was flown to a Kuwait hospital by helicopter to be treated for internal bleeding and bruised kidneys. He hoped to be back to work within a few days, the parents said.